When we go to a play, we get to enjoy a couple hours of entertainment filled with character story lines, plot twists and first-rate acting.
As you can probably imagine, those kinds of performances don’t just happen. You have to find the right crew, and hold auditions to fill each role with the right actors, followed by months of rehearsals.
But before any of that can take place, there actually needs to be a play to perform. That’s where the likes of Charles and Brenda Wilbert come in.
The Concord husband and wife have been writing plays for many years now, with Charles having penned close to 30 on his own, using longhand and a trusty red chair that was given to him many years ago by his mother. It started at the age of 12 when he’d write performances for his siblings to act out.
“Why I had the urge to do it, I have no idea,” Charles said.
Charles is a professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University and has written plays based on historical figures like Henry David Thoreau, Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as his real life. Brenda is a retired nurse practitioner and has written plays about ailments such as chemical sensitivities, depression, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s and Lyme disease.
“The point of those plays is to generate a discussion with those topics,” she said.
And the neat thing is that the pair writes for much different audiences – as well as using different avenues. While most of Charles’s plays are written for the main stage, Brenda’s are more meant for stage readings and panel discussions.
It all starts with an idea. Then you have to decide how long it should be.
“One act or two act? You don’t want people struggling to pay attention to your play,” Charles said.
But before you can start writing there’s one piece that needs to be determined: the ending.
“Always have the ending before you write a play,” Brenda said.
“You have to know where it’s going to end,” Charles added. “The best plays, the ending has to be inevitable.”
But when it comes to writing – and finishing – a play, no two are ever the same. If you have more than one character, there’s one element that must be present.
“There has to be conflict to write a play,” Charles said.
Brenda starts with an outline, developing the people, places and setting. She also needs to write every day or “you lose your momentum.”
“What’s really important is to know who your audience is,” Brenda said. “You want to think about how an audience will react.”
Since Charles is a professor, he typically will use his summer months to craft a new play. He doesn’t write for much more than three hours at a time, but once he’s fully engulfed in a script, the characters are constantly speaking to him – even during the middle of the night.
“You don’t want to be thinking about what you’re going to write, you want to write,” Charles said.
Charles always writes three drafts and doesn’t let Brenda read it until he’s done with No. 3.
“I usually do three and I’m satisfied with that,” Charles said. “It’s not a good idea to write yourself into exhaustion.”
But there are also edits along the way, especially if he’s directing, which was the case with his play about Gertrude Stein.
“We decided we needed to cut 10 pages from the script,” Brenda said.
The Wilberts recently created Schoolhouse Players and produced their first plays, “An Evening with Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder” consisting of two companion one-act plays, titled Two Suits in One Act and In the Eyes of Wilder’s Sister. at Hatbox Theatre in late May/early June.
The goal of the theatre company is to get the plays they’ve been writing out to the public. There’s even talk of a future collaboration. Stay tuned.
For more info, visit schoolhouseplayers.com.
